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Little River, TX | There are different ways to grow alfalfa.
First off you have an Extension Type in Georgia who should be able to give you some good advise. Eric Prostko
Email [email protected], work Phone 229-386-3328.
He was here in Texas for a few years and was both interesting and informative. His Ph. D. at TX A&M U but do not hold that against him. He originated in New Jersey and was a County Agent there.
Don Ball at Auburn might be of some help also. [email protected]
For reading material try http://alfalfa.okstate.edu/pub/alfalfa-production/guide1.pdf.
A good knowledgeable source for seed should be Cimarron Alfalfa Seed, up in North Carolina. They changed their name from Great Plains Research a few years ago.
Just about any fall dormancy will work for you. A FD 6 or 7 would be better in northern GA while a FD 7 or 8 would be a little better in the southern third of the state. The pest resist end for your location will be a whole lot different than what I see in Central Texas. I hope some seed salesman has not sold you a so called Common or Public Domain alfalfa. They usually are lacking in pest resistance.
For a good list of alfalfa varieties try http://alfalfa.org/varietyLeaflet.html just click on the link to get the PDF file with all the listed alfalfas. Click on http://alfalfa.org/ and look at the training session
The intensive Alfalfa Seminar is good, but it truly is intensive. It might be a good investment after you have some experience in growing alfalfa. You will note most of the presenters are from the Midwest while two are from the Arid West.
There are some universal truths about hay production and alfalfa has some of it's own universal truths. The problem is we do not have a universally equal soil, climate, or management style.
You might appreciate alfalfa is different than bermudagrass for hay, but bermudagrass will shatter more leaves than alfalfa. This runs counter to perceived truths but not of the basic universal truth.
Alfalfa uses as much potash per ton as bermudagrass, and considerably more calcium. As the folks in the North East and Mid West you can grow alfalfa on soils that started out acid, but alfalfa will require more lime application than bermudagrass.
I am on a line with Savanna and just finished planting alfalfa. Until this year the latest I ever planted was October 5. This year I planted October 8 and again on October 17. Our first killing frost is usually Thanksgiving. To germinate I the seed needs some rain right now and again some more in another week or two.
You will find your first cutting can be in April, and the last cutting can be in October. Though I have cut alfalfa during every month of the year.
Learn to watch your humidity. Rake when the humidity is above 90%. Some time after the humidity goes down past 70% the hay may be dry enough to bale. Roughly 75% of you hay curing will be done by direct sunlight on the cut plants. The first day out through the leaves, if the hay is in a good wide swath. Through the stems the succeeding days. This time the sun will heat the moisture inside the stems and the little additional vapor pressure will push the moisture out through any openings in the stems.
A perceived problem with alfalfa is the Blister Beetle. Here the critter does not emerge from the ground until mid June. So around mid June I put the conditioning mower in the shed and cut with a simple disk mower. By early September they are gone and I go back to the conditioning mower. Shoot on the odd chance there are beetles in your field, they will be in a swarm, aggregation or what ever you wish to call them. You can see them on the standing alfalfa several rounds before you get there. The will be all in one area and in an area about as big as a pickup truck, shades. All you do is pick up the mower and skip over where they are.
There is enough poison in 50 beetles to kill a horse. Problem is the silly horse will die from colic at a sub lethal dose!
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Anybody have a dummies guide to growing alfalfa.
